Russia's new election commissioner tells opposition leader that his demands to be allowed on the ballot are ‘illegal’

Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia's Central Election Commission, has rejected a plea by the anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who demanded that the government register his political group, The Party of Progress. Pamfilova says Navalny's request is illegal. “You don't like the law?” she responded, saying, “That's another issue. It means you've got to pursue legal means to change [the law] in the future.”

On June 17, Navalny sent an open letter to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Ella Pamfilova, demanding access to the ballot for himself and his political party, which officials have refused to register “for technical reasons.”

Thanks to a law signed by Vladimir Putin in February 2014, former convicts (even those with suspended sentences) cannot run for political office for 10 years after their prison or probation terms expire. (For more serious crimes, this prohibition lasts 15 years.) Navalny, who won 27 percent of the vote in the 2013 Moscow mayoral race, is currently serving out two suspended criminal sentences.